Type 2 Diabetes; Insulin Injections Double the Risk of Mortality

Type 2 Diabetes; Insulin Injections Double the Risk of Mortality

Research, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, claims that those Type 2 Diabetes sufferers (33% of them) who use daily insulin injections as part of their treatment are effectively doubling their risk of death.

The researchers, from the Department of Primary Care and Public Health at the School of Medicine, Cardiff University, and from the Department of Global Epidemiology Pharmatelligence, Cardiff and the Department of Medicine, University Hospital of Wales, reviewed data from the U.K. General Practice Research Database, which included nearly 85,000 patients with Type II diabetes.

The researchers compared the side effects of insulin injections alone with four other common treatment protocols for the disease.

The researchers found that risks of having a major cardiac event, developing a first cancer, or dying jumped by more than 30% when insulin was simply added to metformin treatment for Type 2 diabetes sufferrers. Sulfonylurea monotherapy was associated with around a 44% increased risk and insulin monotherapy alone was associated with an overall 80%.

They found that the risk of myocardial infarction almost doubles while on insulin monotherapy, and the risk of neuropathy more than doubles. (Renal complications were around three-and-a-half times more likely to occur as a result of insulin monotherapy).